A race row has broken out at Bristol City Council after a black councillor accused an Asian colleague of being a "coconut".

Calls for an apology have been made after black Lib Dem councillor Shirley Brown used it to describe Asian Tory councillor Jay Jethwa.

A "coconut" is a term used by black or Asian people to describe someone who is seen to have "sold out" their own culture, someone who looks brown on the outside but is white on the inside.

The outburst came at the council budget meeting on Tuesday, when councillor Jethwa was supporting a Tory proposal to cease funding for the Legacy Commission, an organisation set up last year to support ethnic minorities in Bristol.

Mrs Brown - the authority's only black councillor - wasn't happy and made her views clear.

She said: "In our culture we have a word for you, a word which many in our city would understand, and that's coconut.

"At the end of the day I look at you as that.

"I find it absolutely appalling, although I'm not surprised, and an absolute disgrace that the Conservative Party would dare to have such an amendment.

"To remove funding from the equalities unit and the legacy commission, the impact that this would have is beyond thinking.

"I want to say to you Cllr Eddy, shame to you, and shame again.

"I believe you are totally dismissing a group of people in our community, in our city, who are very important and very significant and equality does not matter to you.

"This is short sighted and should not be tolerated."

Stockwood Conservative councillor Jay Jethwa told the Bristol Post: "I was very shocked by what Shirley said. It was a direct and specific insult to me – something I haven't experienced in the 24 years since I came to this country from India.

"I totally reject the point she was making. I had been saying something that I feel passionate about. I was exercising my democratic rights without insulting anyone.

"What she said was way out of order. It's not fair. If someone else had done it to her, I don't know how she would have reacted.

"Some people from BME (black and minority ethnic) backgrounds are sometimes only too quick to report any such name-calling incidents or insulting racial words.

"But when this happens within the BME community, it's every bit as hurtful."

Mrs Jethwa, 41, and her husband, Nick, live on St Michael's Hill, where they run a cafe.

"I have found the people of Bristol very loving and supportive," Mrs Jethwa said.

"Nothing like this has ever happened before and we work among all communities in Bristol."

Mrs Jethwa had claimed the Legacy Commission was a waste of tax payers money, and having been an immigrant herself argued such support wasn't necessary.

She said: "This authority is spending many millions of pounds specifically on BME projects and groups, this expenditure covers a huge array of spending areas ranging from adult community care, youth provision, housing, racial social awareness and improving educational attainment.

"One has to ask how effective many of the measures we have adopted are in the long term.

"Speaking from my own experience, settling in the UK in the 1970s my husband and his family of East African, Ugandan Asian background, we never expected nor received such targeted support.

"We simply got on with our lives and through sheer hard work and determination bettered ourselves and contributed to the cultural and economic development of this country.

"It saddens me that in the name of political correctness this council, aided and abetted by the Lib Dems, continues to be pre-occupied with futile attempts to right historic wrongs and backs spending more tax payers cash on the Legacy Commission."

The Tories have demanded an apology from Shirley Brown, formerly Shirley Marshall until she recently married.

John Goulandris, Conservative Chief Whip (Stoke Bishop), said: "This is an outrageous racist metaphor which many will find as offensive as any other racial epithet.

"To discover from Cllr Brown's own admission that it is used in common parlance in her 'culture' to describe other BME individuals is equally damning.

"All this from a so-called staunch defender of the Legacy Commission which (purportedly) is charged with improving community cohesion.

"Cllr Brown has long been something of a self-proclaimed expert at recognising racism in others - usually those who do not share her particular ethnocentric world-view. Now we know why - it seems it takes one to know one.

"I hope Cllr Brown is not allowed to hide behind her BME status to get away with using racist slurs.

"Aside from owing Cllr Jethwa an unreserved apology, the very least we should expect is a censure for such appalling behaviour from the new Leader of Council.

"Perhaps Cllr Brown ought to be sent on a race awareness course to learn the error of her ways?"

Council leader Cllr Barbara Janke said: "The cuts to equalities proposed by the Conservative amendment drew strong feelings from the across the council chamber.

"Cllr Brown is clearly passionate about this issue, but what she said was unacceptable and I expect her to apologise to Cllr Jethwa."

Deputy Labour leader Cllr Peter Hammond (Southmead) said: "Year on year Bristol Tory councillors have attacked the council's work with BME communities in Bristol provoking Cllr Shirley Brown's offensive and outrageous remarks.

"Labour condemns both racist words and actions whoever is responsible."

In the last year the Legacy Commission has funded support to improve attainmemnt among under-achieving BME pupils in Bristol schools; a new BME Chamber of Commerce; an Arts Council scheme to encourage BME individuals to take leadership roles in arts and culture and an inter-schools football contest between BME teams and other schools teams.

UPDATE. 12.45pm Friday. 

Shirley Brown has told the Bristol Post she had not intended to cause offence to Mrs Jethwa and had apologised to her both by email and in a formal letter.

Her letter said: “The issue of equalities funding is one that I care passionately about and I was furious at the Conservative proposition to make massive cuts in this area.

“I would like to apologise unreservedly for my remarks made in the heat of the moment and for any offence that may have been caused.”

Mrs Brown said she did not want the incident in the council chamber to inflame racial tensions in Bristol.